When one of the founders of cognitive neuroscience is helping you plumb the mysteries of consciousness, the self, free will, and the two minds that coexist in our skulls, it helps every now and then to touch your nose. To understand why touching your nose is such a profound experience, check out my talk today on bloggingheads with Mike Gazzaniga.

(And if you want to see what Mike was like as a young post-doc 50 years ago, check out this video from the early1960s about his split brain research. It’s also evidence of how much science documentaries have changed…)

I found this diavlog really interesting, and I posted a short comment on my blog . The power of brain imaging to sway jury opinion was tremendously interesting to think about, especially for someone like me who spends so much time trying to construct convincing images to teach people medical and anatomy topics.

One thing I didn’t get — and it looked like Carl didn’t get it either — is Gazzaniga’s explanation of free will. This clearly is a difficult issue. Gazzaniga’s answer wasn’t clear to me. The example that Carl gave — does a kid raised in Nazi Germany have free will? — seemed close, but Gazzaniga rejected it. Can someone explain?